Gods
The Gods are but lesser incarnations and reflections, anthropomorphisms, if you will, of much greater Archetypes. Overview The Gods aren't really just super-beings but are actually a more advanced branch of the human race, one closer to the ancient power. They are, in a sense, anthropomorphic representations of the primary powers of nature part of an extended tribe of ancient beings whose lineage goes back many thousands of years to a time when their line diverged from the human genotype. They are a cadet branch of the human family that retains their kinship to the light. The Ancients who stayed back on Earth some evolved to become the forerunners of the Lemurians and Atlanteans, who later married with the ape-like people of the shore to produce the homosapien branch of the human species. Another branch, however, stayed true to their roots and became the High Elder Race of the Elves, while an even luckier strain became the race of the Titans, who birthed the Gods of later generations. The Gods, in turn, birthed, the Immortal race of the Devas, or lesser-gods if you will, and Angels of the Modron line. Unlike regular humans gods evolved with a special affinity for the natural powers of the cosmos. Like an extra gland that allows them to tap into and channel the manna-lines that encircle the planet. That is why history is replete with legends of heroic beings who claimed a divine being for a sacred ancestor, yet only a few ever achieved real greatness. Most of the offspring of Gods wind up as little better than mortals there is only a one-in-four shot at them being born with the divine spark, which is why the world is not overrun with immortals, in spite of some gods being notoriously prolific. Unfortunately there is one draw back to this in that there is only a finite amount of power to be drawn upon, so Gods tended to specialize as a means of diversifying their numbers and dividing the power alone different channels, which gave them a bigger pool to tap into. At some point in the game, however, the gods discovered a special means by which they could bolster their power to even greater levels by channeling the beliefs and worshipful energies of mortals. They discovered that intensifying the focus of a mortal their way gave them access to that mortal's spiritual energies, and that the more worshippers prayed to them the stronger a God would become, which meant that his popularity could intensify and boost his natural pool of manna. And a very good thing it was that there were so many Gods specializing in so many areas of worship since they tended to divide the power among themselves and diminished the access pool by which one God might claim ascendancy over another. In other words the competition kept them honest. Unfortunately the new system had one major drawback. If a god got really popular his power could swell and he might come to dominate an entire nation, like Lucifer did the early Hebrews. But suppose your following collapses? Supposing your worshippers die off or decide they don't really like you and go worship somebody else? Supposing they forget about you all together and your tap into the Manna lines of their worship and belief dries up and blows away? That tended to happen with a lot of the ancient pantheons their worshippers might get killed off or conquered by a rival people and they decide to mass-convert to a different system. With their Manna pool depleted, the affects were directly much like an addict who's forced to go completely cold-turkey only with more horrific side effects. Such as going ethereal, losing coherence, lacking the ability to remain focused upon the material plane of existence. Depending on how much a God is linked to his following determines the degree to which his loss of power can affect his basic existence. Take the Summerian gods for example they just slowly slipped into a coma of waking dreams then turned ghostly and ethereal, then faded into the night and were forgotten altogether. They still exist on some level outside the mainstream of material reality, but only the ones who've been weaned off a diet of worshipful energy can function on a more-or-less human level. Lucifer was the first one to notice this, and it gave him this really wicked idea for destroying all of the rival gods in their various pantheons and sucking up their energies by building a cult that would follow only him in the guise of Yahweh. Think of it like a power station with various relays that draw upon the same lines for electricity. The more outlets there are the more the power is stretched thin along various channels, but if you shut down these rival outlets one-by-one the resulting surge in power that can be tapped into would give you an enormous reservoir, and by winning more and more converts to your side your power base would grow to truly fantastic proportions. Category:Terminology